Q: What was the Origin of Tolkien’s Hillmen of Rhudaur?
ANSWER: The Hill-men of Rhudaur have puzzled many readers of The Lord of the Rings. There are no stories about them. They are simply mentioned in passing in a brief narrative section in the appendix:
In the days of Argeleb son of Malvegil, since no descendants of Isildur remained in the other kingdoms, the kings of Arthedain again claimed the lordship of all Arnor. The claim was resisted by Rhudaur. There the Dúnedain were few, and power had been seized by an evil lord of the Hill-men, who was in secret league with Angmar. Argeleb therefore fortified the Weather Hills; but he was slain in battle with Rhudaur and Angmar.
Where did these men come from? They had apparently dwelt in the same region for many centuries, perhaps thousands of years. In a note attached to the essay “Of Dwarves and men” (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), J.R.R. Tolkien wrote:
59. When [the hobbits] entered Eriador (early in the second [millennium] of the Third Age) Men were still numerous there, both Numenoreans and other Men related to the Atani, beside remnants of Men of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings. But the Common Speech (of Numenorean origin) was in general use there, even after the decay of the North Kingdom. In Bilbo’s time great areas of Eriador were empty of Men. The desolation had begun in the Great Plague (soon after the Hobbits’ occupation of the Shire), and was hastened by the final fall and disappearance of the North Kingdom. In the Plague it would seem that the only Hobbit communities to survive were those in the far North-west at Bree and in the Shire….
Emphasis is mine. These “remnants of Men of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings” would seem to have ancient roots, perhaps extending back to the Easterlings who fled the ruin of Beleriand at the end of the War of Wrath. The hill-men who seized control of Rhudaur, however, themselves appear to have been overthrown by other men coming from Angmar. In the next paragraph, Tolkien writes:
A great host came out of Angmar in 1409, and crossing the river entered Cardolan and surrounded Weathertop. The Dúnedain were defeated and Arveleg was slain. The Tower of Amon Sûl was burned and razed; but the _palantír_ was saved and carried back in retreat to Fornost, Rhudaur was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were slain or fled west Cardolan was ravaged. Araphor son of Arveleg was not yet full-grown, but he was valiant, and with aid from Círdan he repelled the enemy from Fornost and the North Downs. A remnant of the faithful among the Dúnedain of Cardolan also held out in Tyrn Gorthad (the Barrowdowns), or took refuge in the Forest behind.
In an earlier version of this passage, published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote:
18. Arveleg I. born 1309 lived 100 years + slain 1409 The Witch-king of Angmar taking advantage of war among [the Numenoreans or Dunedain >] the Dunedain comes down out of the North. He overruns Cardolan and Rhudaur. [Cardolan is ravaged and destroyed and becomes desolate. The Tower of Amon Sûl is razed and the palantir is broken. Evil spirits come and take up their abode in the mounds of the hills of Cardolan. In Rhudaur an evil folk, workers of sorcery, subjects of Angmar, slay the remnants of the Dunedain and build dark forts in the hills. But the Dunedain of Fornost, in spite of the death of their king, hold out, and repel the forces of Angmar with the help of Cirdan of Lindon. >] Cardolan is ravaged; the Tower of Amon Sûl is razed and the palantir is removed to Fornost. In Rhudaur an evil folk … [as above] build dark forts in the hills, while the remaining Dunedain of Cardolan hold out in the Barrow Downs and the Forest; the Dunedain of Arthedain repel the forces of Angmar from Fornost with the help of Cirdan of Lindon.
Emphasis is mine. The only other probable direct reference to the non-Edainic men of this region comes in the first paragraph of the essay about the House of Eorl, where Tolkien writes:
…The forefathers of Eorl claimed descent from kings of Rhovanion, whose realm lay beyond Mirkwood before the invasions of the Wainriders, and thus they accounted themselves kinsmen of the kings of Gondor descended from Eldacar. They loved best the plains, and delighted in horses and in all feats of horsemanship, but there were many men in the middle vales of Anduin in those days, and moreover the shadow of Dol Guldur was lengthening; when therefore they heard of the overthrow of the Witch-king, they sought more room in the North, and drove away the remnants of the people of Angmar on the east side of the Mountains….
Emphasis is mine. It could certainly be that these “remnants of the people of Angmar” were Orcs and/or Trolls, but I think that unlikely, as Tolkien usually explicitly mentions such creatures. The description of Angmar’s founding stipulates that Orcs, Men, and other evil creatures were governed by the Witch-king:
‘It was in the beginning of the reign of Malvegil of Arthedain that evil came to Arnor. For at that time the realm of Angmar arose in the North beyond the Ettenmoors. Its lands lay on both sides of the Mountains, and there were gathered many evil men, and Orcs, and other fell creatures….
The men of western Angmar were apparently destroyed in 1975 when Eärnur, Cirdan, and Glorfindel defeated the Witch-king and drove him from the north. The narrative dealing with the impact of the Great Plague on Eriador may imply that the Men of Rhudaur died in 1636:
1636 The Great Plague devastates Gondor. Death of King Telemnar and his children. The White Tree dies in Minas Anor. The plague spreads north and west, and many parts of Eriador become desolate. Beyond the Baranduin the Periannath survive, but suffer great loss.
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